-LRB- CNN -RRB- -- As long as there are postmen , life will have zest .

So said philosopher William James , though younger generations may question the need for snail mail at all .

But Louis Schlamowitz , for one , is grateful to postmen , who over the years have dropped thousands of envelopes into the mailbox of his cramped apartment in the Canarsie neighborhood of Brooklyn , where he has spent all his life .

In that box came words and photographs from the famous -- and sometimes the infamous .

Now , in his closet , he has three jackets hanging , lonely among the 60 photo albums stacked up from the floor and on the shelf . `` South America '' contains Manuel Noriega . Fidel Castro . `` U.S. presidents '' includes John F. Kennedy , Ronald Reagan , Barack Obama and Harry Truman , who started Schlamowitz on his unusual hobby .

Then there 's the Middle East album , a veritable assortment of dictators , fallen and felled . Among the likes of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini , Yasser Arafat and Hosni Mubarak is Moammar Gadhafi , whose ignoble death last month earned Schlamowitz himself a bit of instant fame .

Schlamowitz 's collection -- he says he has more than 6,000 letters and autographed photos -- had been written about before , but after Gadhafi died , everyone became curious about why an 81-year-old American corresponded with the despot .

To answer that question , Schlamowitz takes his questioners back to 1953 , when he was a young Army private in Korea .

His buddy had a sole Christmas card left and Schlamowitz decided he would send it to Truman .

`` He wo n't reply to me , '' Schlamowitz thought . `` I 'm nobody special . ''

But his friend insisted he mail it . `` What do you have to lose ? '' he said .

His friend thought wisely , it turns out .

A month and a half later , came the response , on presidential stationery .

Schlamowitz was inspired . If Truman can write back , why not others ?

Back in New York , he married , had a daughter , and worked for 35 years designing floral arrangements first at a Manhattan shop , then closer to home in Brooklyn .

When he saw someone in the news , he looked up the person 's address and dropped a letter in the mail . He was especially fond of politicians and world leaders .

He wrote to Gadhafi , then a young colonel who had usurped power in Libya in 1969 through a military coup . He asked for a signed photograph .

`` I found his name in the papers , '' Schlamowitz says , sitting at a cluttered table surrounded by metal folding chairs . `` I wished him well . ''

He got his photo and a letter that said : `` Your kind message to Col. Moammar Gadhafi , leader of the great first September revolution , has been received with great appreciation . ''

Schlamowitz , a devout Jew , even received a Christmas card from the Muslim Gadhafi .

Gadhafi wrote several times more ; one letter attacked America for practicing terrorism with its support of Israel -- not what a Jewish man who also had letters from Israel 's Golda Meir , Yitzhak Rabin and Moshe Dayan would want to read .

`` America practices terrorism against the Palestinian people through providing Israel with the planes and weapons for attacking the Palestinian camps . America 's countering of those people 's struggle is a crime against humanity and liberty , '' Gadhafi wrote .

Schlamowitz put the typewritten words into the album , alongside photos of Gadhafi , autographed in red ink .

But he stopped writing to Gadhafi , he says , after the 1988 bombing over Lockerbie , Scotland .

`` They were shooting down a plane killing innocent people , '' he says . He did n't want to be `` mixed up with individuals who were committing crimes against humanity . ''

After the Libyan uprising was well under way , Schlamowitz felt an urge to write again .

`` If you do n't do the right thing for your people and for your country , eventually your people will turn against you , '' he told the dictator . The letter was returned to him , unopened .

`` He should have stepped down like the president of Egypt , '' Schlamowitz says . `` Maybe he would be alive today . But power , it 's not that easy to give it up . ''

If Schlamowitz 's correspondence has intrigued the public , it has certainly raised eyebrows in the halls of intelligence . He says he 's been visited by the CIA , FBI and Homeland Security a number of times . They told him his name keeps popping up in Washington . They wanted to know what his connection was to some of these men , considered enemies of America .

Schlamowitz explained it was no big deal . That he just wanted to write to them and maybe get a photo to hang on his otherwise drab walls .

`` You look like a clean-cut fellow , '' a CIA agent once told him . `` It 's a hell of a hobby you have , Schlamowitz . ''

Schlamowitz has sold only a few of his prized possessions . Two letters from Marilyn Monroe fetched $ 500 . A Christmas card from Jackie and JFK , $ 50 .

Someone once offered him $ 35,000 for the whole collection . He wanted to pay him $ 10,000 up front and the rest after an auction . The problem was the advance was a personal check . Schlamowitz was n't going to take that chance . Cash only , he says .

Three years ago , a guy from Brooklyn offered him a dollar for each piece he owned .

`` You must be sick , '' Schlamowitz told him . `` And I am even sicker dealing with you . ''

Schlamowitz has no idea what his collection is worth , but he knew when he was getting ripped off .

He 's thankful for his daughter and grandchildren . They are sure to take good care of his treasure trove after he is gone .

Lately , he has n't been writing as much . His hand gives way , he says . Tough to keep it all going at his age .

He does n't know why reporters called on him so much , though he certainly enjoys showing off his stuff .

`` I 'm nobody special , '' he says . `` I just want to be a part of history . ''

An ordinary guy with an extraordinary collection .

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Louis Schlamowitz likes to correspond with world leaders

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Among them were Fidel Castro , Ayatollah Khomeini and Moammar Gadhafi

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Gadhafi 's death cast the spotlight on Schlamowitz

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He has over 6,000 letters and autographed photos in his Brooklyn apartment